Today in History, July 8, 1947: New Mexico newspaper reports a ‘flying saucer’ recovered at Roswell

Today is July 8. On this dat:

1776

Col. John Nixon gave the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence, outside the State House (now Independence Hall) in Philadelphia.

1907

Florenz Ziegfeld staged his first “Follies,” on the roof of the New York Theater.

1911

Cowgirl “Two-Gun Nan” Aspinwall became the first woman to make a solo trip by horse across the United States, arriving in New York 10 months after departing San Francisco.

1913

A patent was issued to Alfred Carlton Gilbert for his toy construction blocks known as the Erector Set.

1947

A New Mexico newspaper, the Roswell Daily Record, quoted officials at Roswell Army Air Field as saying they had recovered a “flying saucer” that crashed onto a ranch; officials then said it was actually a weather balloon. (To this day, there are those who believe what fell to Earth was an alien spaceship carrying extra-terrestrial beings.)

1950

President Harry S. Truman named Gen. Douglas MacArthur commander-in-chief of United Nations forces in Korea. (Truman ended up sacking MacArthur for insubordination nine months later.)

1965

Canadian Pacific Air Lines Flight 21, a Douglas DC-6B, crashed in British Columbia after the tail separated from the fuselage; all 52 people on board were killed in what authorities said was the result of an apparent bombing.

1986

Kurt Waldheim was inaugurated as president of Austria despite controversy over his alleged ties to Nazi war crimes.

1994

Kim Il Sung, North Korea’s communist leader since 1948, died at age 82.

2000

Venus Williams beat Lindsay Davenport 6-3, 7-6 (3) for her first Grand Slam title, becoming the first black female champion at Wimbledon since Althea Gibson in 1957-58.

2009

Group of Eight leaders, including President Barack Obama, pledged to dramatically cut greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 as they met in L’Aquila, Italy. 

2011

Atlantis thundered into orbit on a cargo run that would close out the three-decade U.S. space shuttle program.